


Once You're Emperor - Keitor Week 2018 Festival

by lotorotor



Series: Keitor Week 2018 [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Established Relationship, Festival, Fluff, Keitor Week 2018, Kissing, M/M, One Shot, Proposal of sorts, Reminiscing, Self-Doubt, altean culture, lotor sees the best in keith
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-07
Updated: 2018-07-07
Packaged: 2019-06-05 00:26:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15158450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lotorotor/pseuds/lotorotor
Summary: Keith could listen to Lotor talk about his altean heritage forever. Lotor loves Keith more than anything else.Day 7 of Keitor Week 2018 - all the days can be found on my blog @glitch-h !!





	Once You're Emperor - Keitor Week 2018 Festival

What they had in common was the blood of a vicious alien race flowing through their veins. What they had common had caused distress for each of them in different ways at one time or another. What they had in common is what brought them together. They were two kindred souls seeking comfort in someone else who understood what it was like to be judged immediately because of one half of who they were.

What was different about them was what kept them together in this moment.

They were on Lotor’s ship, Keith curled in his lap, dusty books open around them. Lotor’s long, purple fingers trailed across words, his eyes sparkling as he read them aloud. Keith loved listening to him talk about Altean culture. Really, he loved to hear him talk about anything, because he loved the deep velvet sound of his voice. It was voice that he would never grow tired of hearing.

However, he particularly loved when he was talking about Alteans. He loved the way he practically shone whenever he learned something new about his lost ancestry, and he loved the way his silky voice would spike with excitement.

“Oh, the Festival of the Changing of the Seasons! I always loved reading about this!” Lotor crowed, his finger pausing at the chapter heading. He laughed. “The name sounds a bit better in Altean.”

Keith chuckled, snuggling deeper into Lotor’s chest. “Tell me about this festival.”

“Well, it took place during the middle of the year, at the point where the two Altean seasons would change,” he began, “it took place over the course of three days, with the first two mainly consisting of people dancing in the streets and putting up decorations. Lanterns were especially favored, along with floral garlands, and they’d bedeck everything, from buildings to lampposts. Vendors would line the streets, either selling for cheap, or even giving away food and trinkets. Then, on the third day, they would build a giant effigy to the suns and burn it to symbolize both the way that they emit light during the first season, along with the way they seem to die during the second.”

“It sounds wonderful.” Keith said.

Lotor smiled. “I imagine it was. I’ve always wished I could have experienced it for myself at least once.”

There was a pregnant silence as the two remembered exactly why they would never experience the festival. That Lotor’s father had destroyed the civilization, despite once loving a member of it.

Keith threaded his fingers with Lotors and lifted their joined hands, brushing his lips across purple knuckles. “When you’re emperor, you could bring the festival back.”

“Perhaps,” he shrugged, which jostled Keith, “it wouldn’t have the same effect on a different planet with different seasons, however.”

“Then instead of the sun, we’ll burn an effigy of your father, in the shape of a penis, to symbolize that he was a huge dick and that he’s dead.”

Lotor threw his head back and laughed, his arms tightening around the smaller man. “What a splendid idea. You should come up with all of our festival ideas.”

“I’m going to remember you said that once you’re emperor.”

“Oh, that reminds me.” Lotor gently shifted Keith, so that they were facing each other, with Keith moving his legs so that he was straddling the alien. “I’ve been meaning to ask…”

Keith raised one questioning eyebrow.

“I know we have a ways to go before it will even be relevant, but in the event that I do rule the Galra, will you join me? Will you be emperor at my side?”

“Oh,” Keith said, eyes wide. He was shocked at the proposal, even though he knew it should have been obvious, considering he was involved with a prince. Still, he’d never considered that Lotor would want him to rule, too. It was… absurd.

He realized he hadn’t thought at all about his place after the war. Emperor? Keith couldn’t be an emperor. He was just a boy from Earth, an orphan, and a soldier. He wasn’t royalty. He was just a man that knew his way around a knife.

How he had managed to gain Lotor’s affections, he didn’t know. He didn’t know how to react to him wanting to be emperor. He didn’t know how to react to him wanting him at all; he never had.

“Keith?” Lotor placed a hand on his face, a concerned crease between his elegant brows.

“Lotor, I,” he took a deep breath, “I don’t know how to run an empire, or even if someone like me should even be emperor. I don’t know that much about the Galra or anything that I feel like I would need to.”

Lotor opened his mouth to speak, but Keith placed a finger on his lips, hushing him.

“I do know that I want to be with you, always. No matter what.”

He took his finger away and Lotor smiled softly.

“You don’t have to worry about being able to rule. That’s my job, after all. I’ll consult with you, of course, because I value your opinion more than anything, and I think you’re more capable than you realize, but ultimately, I will hoist most of the responsibility. I just want you to be there with me.”

Keith nodded slowly. “If it’s to be with you, then of course I’ll say yes. I’d do anything for you.”

“No, I’d do anything for you.” Lotor countered before grabbing him into an embrace. “You always manage to make me happier than I’ve ever been before, even if I think that’s impossible.  I’d traverse galaxies if I thought it would repay even a fraction of that happiness.”

“Hey, no need to be so grandiose,” Keith grinned, “just being here with you is enough.”

Then Lotor was kissing him, and kissing him, and kissing him as though they’d never kiss again. Soon they’d have to put the history books away and go back to fighting Zarkon, but in that moment, nothing existed outside of the two of them.

Lotor kissed Keith. Keith kissed Lotor. And each kiss was filled with promises for the future, for each other, and most of all, for love.


End file.
